Accused Eldred Township shooter 'human like anyone else,' says niece

Monday

Apr 7, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Charged with fatally shooting two of his next-door neighbors, Garry Flyte of Eldred Township has been described by others as a violent, paranoid methamphetamine user, but his niece says that's a side of him she's never seen.

ANDREW SCOTT

Charged with fatally shooting two of his next-door neighbors, Garry Flyte of Eldred Township has been described by others as a violent, paranoid methamphetamine user, but his niece says that's a side of him she's never seen.

"No one would have ever thought my uncle capable of anything like this," Tiffany Torres of Blakeslee said, referring to Flyte, 54, who is charged with the murders of Meixell Valley Road neighbor Jeffrey Place, also 54, and Place's stepson, Steven Powell, 30.

"Before all this, I never knew him to be violent toward anyone or do drugs. Yes, he's human like anyone else. He's had a harder life than some other people, and I've seen him lose his temper after keeping things bottled up inside, but never anything like this. We're all just in total shock."

The mother of a 3-year-old boy, Torres was contacted by family members the night of the shootings and told about Flyte being charged. She joined family members at the state police Lehighton barracks.

"I saw them bring my uncle out (of the barracks) in handcuffs and put him in the back of a police car," she said. "He just had this blank look on his face."

The man Torres saw that night contrasted with the man she saw when she last visited Flyte at his home last month, the first time she'd been able to visit him in three years.

"He seemed happy," she said. "There were no signs whatsoever that anything like this was coming."

Some neighbors, including Flyte's daughter-in-law's mother, have said Flyte's drug use made him paranoid and that he believed his neighbors were out to get him.

Police said Flyte, whose court appearance has been moved from today to May 5, went next door to the Place residence, knocked on the door and, when Place answered, fired a shotgun into Place's abdomen.

Police said Flyte then shot Powell in the arm and chest, searched the house for Place's wife, Wendy Place, who managed to escape, and then shot the family's pet German shepherd.

Police said Flyte then walked back to his own home, put his shotgun on the couch, then walked back over to the Place residence, called 911 and told dispatchers he had shot three victims.

Police responded and took him into custody.

Torres said she never knew Flyte to be paranoid, but said he told her he had been having problems with neighbors being loud and disturbing his sleep.

"I never heard him talk about killing anyone," she said. "The most violent thing I've ever seen my uncle do is punch a hole in the wall instead of hitting somebody else when he lost his temper."

Torres said these moments of pent-up rage came partially from Flyte having grown up with a father who wasn't very active with him.

She said his parents' divorce when he was 8 or 9 affected him deeply and that he had to struggle to be the man of the house and look out for his younger brother — her father.

Torres said the 2000 death of Flyte's mother and 2010 death of his father, to whom he had grown closer in later years, further added to his emotional stress.

Despite all of this and the everyday stresses of having his own family, Flyte, who Torres said lost his truck-driving job due to a strike, had a loving, gentle side, according to his niece.

"I remember visiting him when I was growing up and playing cards or watching TV with him," she said. "He was nothing like what some people have made him out to be, which is why I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around this. I just can't imagine what the victims' family must be going through or what could have led to all this."